1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to child-proof packages for pharmaceutical products in the form of solid, pulverized or liquid to pasty doses as e.g. tablets, capsules, ampoules or dragxc3xa9es, featuring a blister pack with at least one blister which is closed off by a push-through type foil lid, the blister serving the purpose of accommodating the pharmaceutical product(s). The packaging is such that, for the purpose of removing the pharmaceutical product, the push-through type foil lid of the blister pack lies against a wall part which protects the foil lid and with respect to which the blister can optionally be displaced by sliding from a closed position to an open position so that, when in the open position, the blister with the pharmaceutical product lie in line with openings in the wall part and the pharmaceutical product can be pushed through the openings.
2. Background Art
The danger of uncontrolled consumption of medicaments is undisputed; in particular, small children are especially exposed to this potential danger in the form of medicaments that have been left lying around.
The most common form of packaging for tablets and similar pharmaceutical products is that of blister packs. Widely known in particular is the so called push-through pack which is such that the tablet is pressed out of a cup in the base part of the pack (the so-called xe2x80x9cblisterxe2x80x9d) and through a foil lid. Another known form of blister pack is such that a foil lid is removed by peeling. Other blister packs feature a notch as an aid to tearing.
The present day possibilities for increasing child safety in connection with blister packs mainly involve increasing the difficulty of opening by means of measures that require greater strength, e.g. thicker push-through films, greater force of adhesion of peeling films, or higher force of friction in the case of tearing notches.
Forms of packaging which can be opened only by applying greater force are indeed more child proof, but can present problems for senior citizens.
Known from International patent application WO-A-96/03329 is a child-proof form of packaging in which the lid film of the blister pack is covered by a rear wall part. Integrated into this rear wall part are tearing strips that can be removed along a line of weakness. In order to be able to push the tablet out of the blister through the lid film, the tearing strips have to be removed first.
A child-proof packaging of the kind mentioned at the start of this specification has been disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,793 which issued on Sep. 29, 1992 to PCI/Delvco Inc.
An object of the present invention is to provide a form of packaging of the kind mentioned at the start of this specification such that a combination capability is necessary to open it or a simultaneous or complex sequence of movements must be carried out.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a child-proof package for pharmaceutical product(s), comprising a blister pack with at least one blister which is closed off by a push-through type foil lid, the blister serving the purpose of accommodating the pharmaceutical product(s), the packaging being such that, for the purpose of removing the pharmaceutical product(s), the push-through type foil lid of the blister pack lies against a covering wall part with respect to which the blister pack can be displaced by sliding from a closed position to an open position so that, when in the open position, the blister with the pharmaceutical product(s) lies in line with openings in the covering wall part and the pharmaceutical product, can be pushed through the openings, wherein the blister pack is arranged between a rear wall part and a front part and the covering wall part with the openings is an inner wall part lying between the rear wall part and the foil lid, whereby the blisters can be displaced by sliding from the closed position to the open position into opening slits and the openings in the inner wall part are covered over by a tear-off strip which is arranged in the rear wall part and can be separated from it along a line of weakness thus forming a longitudinal slit.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a child-proof package for tablets and similar pharmaceutical products, comprising a blister pack with at least one blister which is closed off by a push-through type foil lid, the blister serving the purpose of accommodating the pharmaceutical product(s), the packaging being such that, for the purpose of removing the pharmaceutical product(s), the push-through type foil lid of the blister pack lies against a covering wall part with respect to which the blister pack can be displaced by sliding from a closed position, where the foil lid lies adjacent to a solid region of the covering wall part, to an open position in which the blister with the pharmaceutical product(s) lies in line with a tear-off strip in the covering wall part, such that when the tear-off strip is removed to create an opening in the covering wall part, the pharmaceutical product(s) can be pushed through the foil lid and the opening in the covering wall part.
Thus, the blister pack is preferably arranged between a rear wall part, and a front part, and the covering wall part with the openings is an inner wall part lying between the rear wall part and the foil lid, whereby the blisters can be displaced by sliding from the closed position to the open position into opening slits and the openings in the inner wall part are covered over by a tear-off strip which is arranged in the rear wall part and can be separated from it along a line of weakness thus forming a longitudinal slit.
The packaging according to the above-mentioned aspects of the invention thus combines tear-off strips and a blister pack that can be displaced by sliding in the packaging as preferred elements that serve the purposes of child safety, and results in a packaging arrangement providing greater child safety than conventional forms of packaging.
Opening the packaging according to the above-mentioned aspects of the invention requires combination skill that recognizes that, in order to push the pharmaceutical product(s) out, the blister pack has to be moved to a particular position and also that it is necessary to remove a tear-off strip from a wall part of the packaging.
The wall parts of the packaging may consist of cardboard or a plastic material, e.g. PVC (polyvinyl chloride). The wall parts may be single-layer or multi-layer parts, where the latter parts may contain a combination of cardboard and plastic materials.
The opening slits may be arranged perpendicular to the tear-off strips. In this case the displacement of the blister pack is perpendicular to the direction of the tear-off strip. In an embodiment where the package contains an inner wall part, the opening slits may also run parallel to and over the tear-off strips. In this case the displacement of the blister pack is in the longitudinal direction of the tear-off strips.
The front part and the inner wall part are preferably joined by means of e.g. gluing or hot sealing at their peripheries at least in part and such that the blister pack lying in between can be displaced by sliding in the longitudinal direction of the opening slit. The rear wall part and the inner wall part are preferably at least in part or all-over joined by means of e.g. gluing or hot sealing in the region surrounding the tear-off strip, so that children are not able to tear off the rear wall from the inner wall when the tear-off strip is torn off.
An additional layer can be attached to the front part on its side facing the blister pack. The additional layer can be provided at least in part, i.e. in the region of the opening slits, or all-over. Further an additional layer can be attached to the rear wall part on its side facing the blister pack. The additional layer can be provided at least in part, i.e. in the region surrounding the tear-off strips, or all-over. The additional layers are e.g. made of a plastic material, preferably of PVC, and they can e.g. be glued, heat sealed or laminated. The additional layers serves to prevent tearing the front part with respect to the rear wall part.
In order to increase child safety further the resistance to sliding displacement of the blister can be increased in that the opening slits exhibit narrow regions, breakable barriers or other suitable means between the closed position and the open position. The greater frictional resistance to the blister at the narrow regions in the opening slits has to be overcome by stronger pressure applied by the fingers. Further the opening slit may be closed with a tear-off strip, whereby the tear-off strip is joined to the front part e.g. by a line of weakness, preferably a line of perforations. By tearing off the strip, the opening slit is freed an the blister is movable.
The arrangement of the inner wall part offers the advantage that, after removing the tear-off strip the foil lid of the blister pack is still not visible. In order that the openings in the inner wall part are also not readily visible, these can be covered by an opening closure that can be pushed through. The opening closure can be a defined area of the inner wall part which is delimited by a closed line of weakness, e.g. a notched or stamped line.
Further, it has also been found advantageous to cover the inner wall part on its side facing the rear wall part and/or on its side facing the foil lid with a protective layer of plastic material. The plastic material is preferably a PVC-layer. The protective layer can be laminated, heat sealed or glued onto the inner wall part. As a result this removes the possibility of small children in particular exposing the prepared openings after removal of the tear-off strips and possibly other rear wall parts.
According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a child-proof package for tablets and similar pharmaceutical products, comprising a blister pack with at least one blister which is closed off by a push-through type foil lid, the blister serving the purpose of accommodating the pharmaceutical product(s), the packaging being such that the push-through type foil lid of the blister pack lies against a covering wall part, whereby the covering wall part is a multi-layer part and contains an inner layer facing the foil lid of the blister and an outer layer. The outer layer may be bonded to the inner layer in part or all-over. The inner layer contains an opening covered by a push-through opening closure which is delimited by line of weakness. The opening closure lies for the purpose of removing the pharmaceutical product over the blister. The outer layer contains an opening which lies on the opening closure. The said opening is preferably a hatch-like opening. The opening and the opening closures are preferably circular and the opening is preferably concentrically arranged on the opening closure. The opening of the outer layer is preferably equal or smaller than the opening closure. That is to say, the diameter of the opening of the outer layer is preferably equal or smaller than the diameter of the opening closure. The outer layer features an annular region surrounding the opening. The annular region of the outer layer is not bonded to the inner layer. The annular region is delimited towards the plane outer layer by means of a line of weakness, e.g. a circular line of perforations. The annular region preferably contains radial lines of weakness, e.g. cuts or lines of perforations, which subdivide the annular region into sectors. If the opening is smaller than the opening closure then the line of weakness of the opening closure is protected under the annular region and on pressing out the pharmaceutical product, the individual sectors stick out in the shape of a crown or a bloom. The inner layer is preferably made of cardboard and the outer layer is preferably made of a plastic material, e.g. PVC.
The described annular region represents a mean for diversion of attention of the children, which first try to open the packaging by detaching the loosened annular region, particularly the loosened sectors, from the laminate. This way children hardly pay attention to the underlying opening closure.
A rear wall part may be arranged adjacent to the outer layer facing of the covering wall part, whereby the opening of the covering wall part is covered over by a tear-off strip which is arranged in the rear wall part and can be separated from it along a line of weakness thereby forming a longitudinal slit.
A further contribution to increasing child safety in the packaging according to the invention can be made by special shaping of the tear-off strip. This exhibits preferably a gripping flange that terminates in an edge part of the rear wall part, that is freed from it only after bending the edge part, and can then be gripped between two fingers. The gripping flange can be delimited from the edge part by means of a cut or line of weakness, e.g. a punched line or a line of perforations, so that after bending the edge part the gripping flange is freed along the line of weakness and sticks out of the edge part.
As a further contribution to increasing child safety in the packaging, means, e.g. spring-loaded elements, can be provided which automatically set back the unhanded blister pack from the opened to the closed position by displacing in the opening slit.
The package according the invention can contain one or more cups which are movable individual or together in groups. The cups of a blister pack containing a number of cups may e.g. be arranged and movable in rows or in columns. In this case the cups may be movable horizontal or vertical with regard to the rows and columns of cups. In the embodiment where the movement of the cups is perpendicular to a row or a column of cups the displacement of the row or column is preferably only successful by pushing at least two cups at once. The sliding displacement by pushing e.g. only one single cup of a row or column affects that the blister pack tilts in a diagonal position in such a manner that at maximum one cup of the row or column does move into line with the openings in the adjacent wall.
The packaging according the invention can be developed in the form of a single card containing at least one blister pack with at least one cup, where the cups are arranged in rows and columns. Further the packaging may be developed in the form of a foldable strip shaped card with several segments that can be folded, where the segments may contain blister packs as forgoing described.
A useful design of the packaging according to the invention comprises of a strip-shaped card which can be folded together, whereby in the folded state one end part is folded over a first folding axis onto a middle part and is covered by a lid part folded over a second folding axis. A blister pack is preferably provided in both the middle part and in the end part, whereby the blister pack in the middle contains a daily dose e.g. of a first kind of table or similar pharmaceutical product intended to be taken in the morning and the blister pack in the end part contains the daily dose of a second kind of tablet or similar pharmaceutical product to be taken in the evening.
In a first version of the packaging according to the invention the opening slits may be arranged perpendicular to the tear-off strips. In a second version, the opening slits are arranged parallel to and over the tear-off strips.
The line of weakness in the wall part to delimit the tear-off strip is preferably a line of perforations.